As the COVID cost millions of smallholder farmers and migrant laborers their livelihoods, Corporates in India have come forward not just to support the immediate needs of these distressed people but also enable them to get back to their work.
World’s leading agriculture company Corteva Agriscience also tweaked its CSR activities to help more than 2,00,000 Indian farmers to "resume work, while staying safe" as the COVID pandemic continues to challenge the demand and supply frameworks and disrupt the livelihood of smallholder farmers.
In this interview with TheCSRUnvierse, Corteva Agriscience Marketing Director Dr. Aruna Rachakonda speaks on various activities that his team took towards helping the farmer communities. She also speaks on the new initiatives that company took, the digital training mode it adopted for training farmers and much more…
Scroll down to read the full interview of Dr. Aruna Rachakonda, Marketing Director, Corteva Agriscience, South Asia
Interview Highlights:
- COVID pandemic has challenged the demand and supply frameworks and disrupted the livelihood of smallholder farmers
- It has pushed organizations to re imagine the way we operate, now and into the future. Sustainable agriculture has never been more important for us and for the world.
- For implementation of initiatives to drive the change, implementation partners with experience of working with farming communities on ground are needed who understand the farmer life, challenges, mindset.
- There is no better time than now for corporates to invest in protecting, preserving and safeguarding our agriculture friends and communities.
Interview with Dr. ArunaRachakonda, Marketing Director, Corteva Agriscience, South Asia
Q: Corteva has been among the companies leading CSR activities for farmers. What are your ongoing key CSR activities?
A: Corteva is working to enrich lives together through sustainability and help the farming communities thrive. Our long-term goal is to improve farmers’ livelihoods and operations while conserving resources and sustaining the land. Our aim is to help agricultural communities by promoting economic opportunity and social inclusion for all through empowering women in agriculture, enabling youth to build a diverse agricultural workforce and improve the quality of life in communities where we live and work.
Q: How do you implement your CSR programmes in India?
A:We partner with local and regional communities through outreach programs and use our expertise to help address nutrition, food security, environment, science and technology education, and life quality challenges.
Through our initiative Corteva™ Grows, employees volunteer to empower women, enable youth and improve their communities. We recently partnered with local governments and non-profit organizations in India to ensure the health and safety of farmers during the pandemic. Through partnerships with non-government organizations such as PRADAN, Sewa Bharati and CHD Group, Corteva supported over 200,000 plus beneficiaries during the last few months.
Over 16 lakh personal protective equipment (PPE) was produced and distributed to farmers across 220 villages. PPE production units were set up in the vulnerable communities of Jharkhand and Bihar, providing temporary employment to women farmers in times of financial difficulty.Our initiative was targeted to help smallholder farmers and migrant workers resume work, while staying safe. The Corteva team also worked with local government bodies to help run quarantine facilities in the affected communities, and provided PPEs, food, and medical facilities at 15 government established quarantine centers.
Q: What are your farmers’ support initiatives amid the ongoing COVID pandemic?
A: The COVID pandemic has challenged the demand and supply frameworks and disrupted the livelihood of smallholder farmers, as these farmers were not able to step out to tend to their fields. This has posed several financial difficulties and health and safety challenges for farmers.
At a time when farmers are facing financial difficulties, Corteva is providing temporary employment to women farmers to ensure economic stability. Corteva is also working to provide support to migrant farmers in the form of survival kits including food and other health essentials.
The COVID 19 pandemic has also created a greater need for reliable information sharing to ensure utmost health and safety, especially in the affected and smaller communities. Corteva realized this need pretty early and formed multiple district/block level WhatsApp groups through which volunteers kept in touch with the communities for new updates and information sharing. Through these WhatsApp groups, the communities received updated information around lockdown rules, special transport arrangements, and government care package distribution. Corteva volunteers also supervised sanitation and transportation of farm products till the market yard and undertook health monitoring initiatives in seed and research farms in about 20 villages, through public health outbreak surveillance methodology.
Q: What are the new measures you are taking to continue your CSR activities while adhering to the COVID protocols?
A: While COVID has immensely impacted Corteva’s methodology and milestones, we have revised our strategies to support the farmers and continue our efforts:
- All the farmer training programs being conducted for capacity building and technology demonstration are done adhering to social distancing guidelines and we ensure farmers wear masks during meetings and wash hands/sanitize. Also, the number of trainings have been increased so that the stakeholders can be covered in small batches. Accordingly, we have revised the budgets of the project.
- Our established Agricultural Entrepreneurs have become the focal points for us to facilitate the gathering in small groups of farmers for virtual training on zoom platforms.
- Amplification in Roles of FPC: In these difficult times, we have stepped up the role of various Farmers Producers Companies (FPC) which have been established by us in the project by creating market linkages for the produce and helped them procure the desired approval for the transport of the harvested crop to the market. This is helping the farmers to sell the produce, at a better price in the right market.
Q: What are your thoughts on CSR laws in India?
A: The year 2019 saw amendments to the Companies Act that strengthened the laws governing corporate social responsibility (CSR). We at Corteva believe that besides growing our business, it is extremely important to shape responsible and supportable relationships with the community at large and the recent amendments will aid us in doing the same.
Q: What are your expectations from your CSR implementation partners in today’s changing scenario?
A: We are looking for partners who have experience of serving the farming community and believe in transforming their life for a better tomorrow. Agriculture has been a traditional occupation in India and various other Asian countries and acceptance of modern farming solutions by growers is a journey which needs a lot of hand holding, capacity building and a change in outlook which will come gradually. But for implementation of initiatives to drive this change, implementation partners with experience of working with farming communities on ground are needed who understand the farmer life, challenges, mindset and their respect for traditional practices.
With this approach together with implementation partners, we can bring a positive change in farmers’ lives and move forward on our journey of sustainable agriculture.
Q: What are your suggestions and message to your corporate colleagues on building a strong CSR environment in the country?
A: Corteva believes that besides growing business, it is extremely important to shape responsible and supportable relationships within the community at large to ensure sustainable living. There is no better time than now for corporates to invest in protecting, preserving and safeguarding our agriculture friends and communities.
Further, the COVID-19 situation has pushed organizations to reimagine the way we operate, now and into the future. Sustainable agriculture has never been more important for us and for the world.
